Disney Exits Video Game Market; Drops Disney Infinity

Disney has announced that it will be discontinuing its popular Disney Infinity franchise. The company is planning to release the two next retail releases set for this month and June; after which nothing new will be produced for the line.

The surprise announcement comes from Disney Infinity Senior VP and General Manager John Blackburn; who shared the update on the Disney Infinity website. Blackburn wrote, “we have made the difficult decision to discontinue production of Disney Infinity. From the beginning, Disney Infinity was built for you—our fans—and I wanted to take a moment to thank you not just for your support over the years, but for creating a community that made Disney Infinity more than just a game.”

Why Disney has chosen to take a $147 million (about RM595 million) write down charge to shut the production down is unknown. It was estimated that Disney Infinity was proving to be profitable for Disney, although the actual numbers were not made public. The line has also been wildly popular since introducing Star Wars characters with Disney Infinity 3.0.

That being said Disney Interactive, is not shutting down (as far as we know). While it is mainly known for Disney Infinity, the studio had also previously worked on Epic Mickey, Fantasia: Music Evolved, and Ducktales: Remastered. It is likely that the developers will be working on something else.